Talk:Talking bird

Delete Category:Nonverbal communication

I deleted [[Category:Nonverbal communication]] because that category relates to human communication. If there is a category for animal communication, this article surely belongs in it. Cbdorsett 09:06, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Quite frankly, this article is junk, and ought be deleted.

I disagree with that entirely,but it does need work. It's a good overall topic, but the emphasis is too much detail on individual birds, and not enough general information about which types of birds in general can talk. Essentially most of the crow family, most (if not all) of the starling family (which includes Mynas), and most (if not all) of the parrot order can talk, but the article barely touches on the general information. Instead it goes into too much detail about 3 individual African grays, and 2 individual budgies. I don't consider the detail crufty or non-notable, but it is out of balance given the shortage of GENERAL information.JeffStickney 16:51, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Created a new category for talking birds.

I just created a category for talking birds. With the large number of bird species that have this ability I feel a category would be appropriate. I could use some help getting this filled.JeffStickney 17:14, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

This article focuses primarily on specific individual talking birds. The information about bird species' ability to be taught to speak is sparce and generally redundant to their main article. Therefore, I propose adjusting this article towards what I percieve is its intent, List of notable individual talking birds. Alternatively List of notable talking birds or List of talking birds. Regardless of the title, we should add a "Lead selection criteria" as defined in WP:SAL explaining that this is a list of individual birds who are known by way of independent sources for their ability to talk. -Verdatum (talk) 21:09, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Recommend "adjusting" the article first - this will garner more onlookers to contribute to a discussion for any renaming. JPG-GR (talk) 05:34, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

I see where you are coming from, but having only just come across the article, I wanted to leave time for discussion before repurposing the article. I'll try to reorganize it within the next day or two. -Verdatum (talk) 14:59, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

more corvidae birds

regular crows and ravens can be trained to talk, and are much better imitators than parrots. i don't know how widespread across corvidae this is, so not added anything, but its certainly not just the minor bird.

Maybe add a section discussing the evolutionary advantages to bird speech?

I'm trying to find out why some birds would have evolved to mimic other animals. I would think that it would be disadvantageous if they mimicked a predator's mating call or something or attracted a predator of the animal they're mimicking. 123.243.215.92 (talk) 12:24, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

Interesting question. Not much seems to be much known about why birds mimic; leading theories are that it's to attract a mate, establish their place in the pecking order, or identify birds from their neighbourhood which speak the same dialect. If anyone wants to add this info to the article, here are some useful sources:

• "Why do parrots have the ability to mimic?". Scientific American.
• "Mimic birds 'copy other species'". BBC News.
• "Parrots and lyrebirds: the great pretenders". Australian Geographic.

DoctorKubla (talk) 07:43, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

Disappointing article

This is a disappointing article. It says too little about the most interesting aspect of this subject, which is how far birds understand what they are saying and how far they are just dumbly mimicking what they hear. It also uses phrases like "vocabulary of almost two thousand words", leaving the reader to guess at the extent to which "vocabulary" is meant in a human sense, without ever properly developing the topic. 86.167.124.229 (talk) 03:37, 12 October 2013 (UTC)